Disney(World) vs. Disney(land)?

[WDW1974]

Who/what did they toss into the water?

Mickey and, I think, the chipmunks.

They got the water treatment. And the school got punished bigtime. ... But it did seem to happen every year in the 1980s!

 

[Rasvar]

Mickey and, I think, the chipmunks.

They got the water treatment. And the school got punished bigtime. ... But it did seem to happen every year in the 1980s!

I'm pretty sure it was Mickey I saw get splashed. They were using the old swan boat dock, so it was not a difficult toss. I was up on the Tomorrowland Bridge at the time.

 

[WDW1974]

He hasn't been young for a very long time!

True. I existed before the Internet, the iPhone and even reality TV!

I'm sorta timeless ...

 

[unkadug]

Mickey and, I think, the chipmunks.

They got the water treatment. And the school got punished bigtime. ... But it did seem to happen every year in the 1980s!

Wow...what does that do to the costumes? It can't be good for them.

 

[ChrisFL]

Not on my part, Chris.

I don't have the time or the desire right now.

And there's only so many times you can repeat the exact same things before you need to give it a rest ...

... besides, I've heard WDW has never been better!

Well I've always appreciated your contributions, and respected your opinion on matters, even if I didn't always agree.

 

[WDW1974]

Wow...what does that do to the costumes? It can't be good for them.

Yeah ... but what do you think it does to the poor folks inside them?
Under the right circumstances, you could have a dead Mickey on your hands. ... But it was a very common practice back then, even though it was in the news immediately when a school was banned.

 

[WDW1974]

Well I've always appreciated your contributions, and respected your opinion on matters, even if I didn't always agree.

Thanks. Much appreciated.

I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm not going anywhere. But I'll likely be posting less again for a while ... and I will be on the left coast for a chunk of September and not spending time online.

But I'm not going anywhere. I do feel I've spent too much time in discussions the past few weeks (working online with plenty of downtime and lots of rainy weather certainly helped me spend more time than I would have).

 

[scpergj]

Mickey and, I think, the chipmunks.

They got the water treatment. And the school got punished bigtime. ... But it did seem to happen every year in the 1980s!

The story I heard was Mickey - and that Mickey's friend darn near drowned. At least that's the story that was going around my friends that were there in '84, and that we were told in '86 by our teachers to keep us from having the same done to our school.

 

[jt04]

See, I knew I shouldn't have unblocked this wasteful content... But, I need to answer this.... So now you contend Disney is not concerned with Universal, Sea World, and Legoland.

If you read the entire post instead of conviently editing it (what a novel concept) I clearly stated the mouse is still in competition. The mouse just is not required to react everytime the competition adds a new umbrella at Citywalk.

They will react when they are ready to. They do not mind successful competition. If they did they would have immediately reacted the day Universal signed on for Potter 1.0.

 

[WDW1974]

The story I heard was Mickey - and that Mickey's friend darn near drowned. At least that's the story that was going around my friends that were there in '84, and that we were told in '86 by our teachers to keep us from having the same done to our school.

I am sure that is true ... we were told the same. And I do recall reading the stories (remember in our youth when news came in a paper product in black and white with some photos and the newsprint would get on your hands and you couldn't comment at the bottom by SPAMMING, spewing hatred or political BS?) annually ...

 

[flynnibus]

Honestly. whether you intended it to be or not, it did come off a s sermon. I don't take well to them ,which I'm sure you've figured out.

Sorry.. inside joke. It's a recurring tag line used in radio spots up here in the DC area by some pastor that gives some 'insightful' spiel.. and always ends with that tagline. It kind of sticks in your head after so many years and somehow has a ring to it. Load up this webpage just to hear it.. it plays on load
http://www.notasermon.org/default.htm

I'll send you a PM on the rest

 

[jrlbc06]

Sorry for typos posting from phone.

We are at the world now and I have to say that we at shocked by how empty it feels compared to previous August trips. It's just anecdotal but the reports of drastically decreased attendance ring true to me.

That said fantasyland expansion looks amazing behind the walls and all effects but the shooting water on splash were working. Main street looks great and thunder mountain looks clean and fresh.

THAT said studios Epcot and AK all desperately need investments in rides rides rides. If I paid 100 for a one day ticket to any of those three I would be disappointed.

 

[culturenthrills]

Although I'm not '74 and don't have the full knowledge of this like he does, I can answer this question. It's a combination of both factors. Some of the current execs are retiring no matter what, but many of them are frustrated that their long-term plan of sitting on pixie dust and watching stupid tourists show up anyway has failed. It was inevitable: Universal has been adding substantial attractions while Disney simply raised prices. Tourists are smarter than they were ten years ago, and with online research many are choosing to cut a few days out of their WDW visits for a trip to Universal or Sea World. Guest survey responses are getting lower, with many of them claiming WWOHP as their favorite attraction. Theme park attendance has grown at every Disney park worldwide except Florida and Hong Kong. Plus, even though Universal will never reach the attendance levels of WDW, Uni is pulling in percentage gains while WDW dropped. Those numbers cannot be denied. Considering that WWOHP was just the beginning of Uni's Orlando expansion plan, WDW finally conceded that the FLE won't combat Potter or Transformers. FLE is a beautiful bandaid to fix the MK's current crowding issues and doesn't add much true capacity other than dining.

Remember, we're discussing people in those TDO offices; the successful turnarounds at Uni and DCA have damaged TDO's pride. Nothing is currently greenlit to help Florida any time soon. Avatar is a long-term pipe dream at DAK; and the FLE, while lovely, merely addresses existing concerns. NexGen has already raised significant issues in its testing phases. Meanwhile, Uni has WWOHP, a Potter expansion, Transformers, and multiple updates on the way—and DCA has Carsland and significant performance gains.

Good thing Florida has that enormous plastic hat in DHA to add MAGIC. Uni has the most cutting-edge ride in America.

Remember all those hints I dropped about Staggs' visit and the closed-door meeting at DAK? Corporate and TDO have finally gotten serious about improving WDW.

With Universal it has not been just about the attendance it has been about guest spending. That has gone through the roof. And the cool thing about Universal is that they could easily jack up the price in the WWOHP for butterbeer and other things but they haven't. Something I am sure Disney would do in a heartbeat. Also, when Disney close PI, Citywalk became the only game in town for adults whether hear for vacation or convention to go at night. Since PI's closing Citywalk has kept growing and growing. Disney really screwed the pooch on that one. PI made money, did it make a ton, know but it made money. Look at DTD now. It has become a joke and things have gone down hill esp from PI to the Westside. Between Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Wet and Wild, SeaWorld, Aquatica and Discovery Cove you could have a really great vacation in Orlando without every setting foot in WDW. The last few times my family has visited they haven't even been interested in going to WDW. When I mention WDW they ask if there has been anything new and you know the answer to that question.

 

[lazyboy97o]

If you read the entire post instead of conviently editing it (what a novel concept) I clearly stated the mouse is still in competition.

You always make this claim. Do you think we are all too stupid to know that we can click on a quote and that it will take us to the original post, with the whole message and all of its context?

 

[culturenthrills]

True. I existed before the Internet, the iPhone and even reality TV!

I'm sorta timeless ...

Remember not have a microwave or a vcr. You actually had to have a popcorn maker to make popcorn or jiffy pop.
Frozen tv dinners had to be cooked in the oven.

 

[Clever Name]

You always make this claim. Do you think we are all too stupid to know that we can click on a quote and that it will take us to the original post, with the whole message and all of its context?

I must admit that I was too stupid to know that trick. Thanks for tip!

 

[Donald96]

That does not mean Disney will not need to compete against Universal etc, but I do not think they mind the idea of a rising tide lifting all boats. And they do not mind being reactive rather than proactive. The relatively flat numbers of the last couple years are not that major a problem compared to the other issues they faced in other divisions.

While I do not 100% agree with everything JT says, you guys are hashing him out over this post? While the last paragraph may be edging it close to being rude the thing you are pestering him about is mis-leading. As above he states that in a way they DO have to compete with their competers here in Orlando (as you made him sound it sound like he said they didn't when he never did he just said "not overly concerned") but there are still some international and national destinations they must watch out for. i.e. Las Vegas, Dubai, Europe(I know there is Disneyland Paris but as an American tourist their #1 goal is to not see a Disneyland when we have two right here), and New York City. And while a new addition to a local theme park may hurt their #'s a little bit (Magic Kingdom still gained 170,000 guests OR 1%) it brings more people to Orlando which is ultimatley not a bad thing at all. So while other theme parks add things they may not have to react right away but overtime (as we are seeing with FLE, Pandora, and who knows what else) they must because if TDO lets their product get stale then the #'s will go down rather then up. So while I'm not saying that Disney has an excuse to not react at all, if they can why not coast on Orlando's increasing popularity (first city to reach 50 million visiters!!!!) and then come and smack their competion back? Oh and if we could please keep some decent respect for each other that would be nice, as this is a Disney fan site/ news site (and the best one out there ) not a middle school classroom.

 

[WDW1974]

Remember not have a microwave or a vcr. You actually had to have a popcorn maker to make popcorn or jiffy pop.
Frozen tv dinners had to be cooked in the oven.

And us 'wittle fanbois only had park maps and Disney News magazines to try and figure out what new amazing things were coming ... strange thing is, though, they did ... they always did.

Now, we have all these wonderful tools to allow us to sit on our as they get larger by the day, yet Disney doesn't wow like it once did.

Oh, and I remember as a kid our first microwave took up like one third of the surface space on our kitchen counter ... it was huge. and getting my first VCR back in 1985 and it lasted until like 8 years ago too!

 

[basas]

Only by the press machine.

Tomorrowland 74-75 produced more onstage area that was previously not available to guests (true expansion) and more attractions.

Right...and I would argue that e-ticket additions such as Splash Mountain (’92) or BTMRR (’80) were more significant as well. Phyiscal size alone is rather irrelevant. I’m sure the new Fantasyland will LOOK very nice (certainly an improvement over what we had before), but what 'backs up' those nice looks? The Little Mermaid ride? As I mentioned before, I was rather underwhelmed by DCA’s version of it, but perhaps I’m just not the demographic Disney is targeting.

 

[basas]

I must remain vague. It's all related to Ops. Much of the attractions and Ops teams already dislike FastPass, and NexGen has only added to the insanity.

It's rather insane that they realized the problems Fastpass causes on attractions such as the Haunted Manison (POtC and Buzz at Disneyland too) so removed it...only now to go completely backwards and add it to where it makes even less sense. Then again, it sounds as if a lot of NextGen is unnecessary.